6/18/08

"Ban" is just more GOPer-speak. In reality, there is a moratorium on drilling in certain coastal areas. Other areas are not only open to drilling but leases and drilling permits have already been issued.

And they are not being drilled.

In fact, only 17% of the leased areas [are] in production. So, with about 33 million acres of offshore areas already available to drill and not being drilled, why does the oil and gas industry need to have access to still more? The fact is that nearly 25 BILLION barrels of oil off the coast of the United States is currently available for drilling...and industry is not drilling it.

Not to mention natural gas. Most of the natural gas occurring offshore (over 328 TRILLION cubic feet – an eleven year supply at current consumption rates) is currently available for leasing and development.

And they’re not going after it.

This is the story throughout the country, more than 44 million acres of onshore public lands are leased for oil and gas development and yet most of it is not being drilled. All told (onshore and offshore), 68 million acres are leased and sitting idle. Over 10,000 permits are currently 'stockpiled' by industry. But still they want more.

Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as [assets] to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money.

Republicans and the oil industry are lying to America out the ying yang on this. Surprised? I didn't think so...

The scheme, called Summer Streets, will run on three consecutive Saturdays in August - the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

A seven-mile (11km) route linking Brooklyn Bridge in the south to the Upper East Side will close to traffic.

...snip...

Exercise classes, such as dance and yoga sessions, will be held along the route, which will run from Lower Manhattan to East 72nd Street, via Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue.

Bikes will be available to rent along the route, and there will be rest areas at various points for cyclists to take on water and repair bikes.

Throw in some beer and free street music and this would be an even bigger draw for suburbanites... And I would promise to take the train into town, Mikey. :)

I couldn't agree with her more as we get a glimpse of the kind of campaign the GOP will be running in this election cycle. And if that Hillary slogan is what they are offering to the former Hillary supporters to crossover and vote for 4 more years of failed bush policies... Well? Good luck with that to the bed wetting set in the insane asylum known as GOP headquarters.

Congressman Chris Murphy from the 5th CD joined me for an interview on Saturday morning. The video covers topics such as the 2006 election, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, current bills before the House, and Chris's impressions from his first term in Congress. The entire interview runs 22 minutes.

Parents Magazine has asked Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama to share their favorite cookie recipes, with readers voting on their favorite. “Apparently, the winner of the cookie contest has predicted the election the past four times.” However, McCain’s recipe for Oatmeal-Butterscotch cookies is an exact copy of Hershey’s recipe. In April, the McCain campaign was caught having duplicated three recipes from the Food Network almost word-for-word, posting them on the campaign website. The error was blamed on a “low-level unpaid staffer.”

The only question? Which McCain staffer will be used to wipe up these messes?

La Casa de Los Gatos votes for the man with the shovel. The man who is not afraid to go to the site of the disaster and pick up the tools and work alongside the affected people.

Where is FEMA? These people have lost access to clean drinking water. They need portable toilets and water, medicine, clean food, supplies, health care, temporary shelter. Where the fuck is FEMA? Why aren't they on the ball? Where is Michael Chertoff? Why hasn't Georgee cut short his taxpayer-funded jaunt in Europe and headed home to pick up a shovel, the worthless PoS?

Senator Obama's Website features a plea for help for the victims of flooding in the Midwest:

Ancient McInsane's site features a cheesy picture of the egomaniac with his Daddy and a cheesy Father's Day message.

Listen up, McSenile: Lots of fathers in the Midwest are worried about being able to take care of their children now, and in the future, thanks to your best bud's policies, which you promise to continue if elected. Now is the time to get your ancient, pasty, wrinkly behind into gear and help some of those people. Not flit between your eight or nine multi-million-dollar houses with a paid staff of servants waiting on you hand and foot.

Oh, it looks like we forgot to whom we were speaking. John McBush wants you to know how he feels your pain, Midwesterners:

Statement by John McCain on the Midwest Floods

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on the flooding in the Midwest:

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by the flooding throughout the Midwest. Cindy and I would like to extend our sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones, and stand ready to help those in the Midwest to recover and rebuild."

Standing ready doesn't cut it, Mr. Multi-millionaire. How about shelling out a few shekels?

That's right, we forgot. The last time a natural disaster hit, you were pictured doing this:

As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food."

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

The World Information Access (WIA) report found that:

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

Bloggers averaged about 15 months of prison time when arrested, but the report acknowledges that, like in the case of Burma where there were hundreds of reports of arrests, many of whom were purported to be Bloggers, verifying the arrest of these internet scribes was not always possible.

Predictions of rising numbers of arrests are expected for the entire Blogging world, including the USA and partially due to elections this year and higher Blogging participation rates.

Welcome to the new and improved corporate owned America that the GOP built during the criminal bush years. Where spying on innocent Americans, lying America into illegal wars of aggression and "100 year" occupations, torturing innocents and criminals, spending this country into recession, selling nuclear secrets to the enemy and outing entire spy networks are treated as acts of conservatism heroism... And speaking and the truth liberally could cost you your not-so Constitutionally protected right to freedom.

P.S: I am testing the Scribefire add-on for my Firefox browser, so I am not sure how well this will work for posting to my Blog. Sorry. in advance, if it messes with things! :)

Blogrolling Policy -This is a liberal blog and I have a liberal Blogrolling policy. I will add anyone to my Blogroll who adds me to theirs, whether conservative, liberal, moderate, libertarian, or even non-political, with the exception of spam blogs... If you Blogroll me and notice that I have not returned the favor, nudge me in the comments here until I notice!

Larry Craig and David Vitter — “two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity” — have named themselves as co-sponsors of S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”